Around 1 million Rohingya live in the northwestern Rakhine province, where they are one of the largest minority groups in the region.

People began to flee after an armed group calling themselves the ARSA (Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army) attacked a number of Burmese military posts last week in the name of fighting back against army abuses, prompting an immediate crackdown on the Rohingya by the military.

The current parliament agreed just last week not to amend this law. Instead, the parliament believes — as does much of the country, including former human rights advocate and ruling party leader Aung San Suu Kyi — that the Rohingya are not Burmese citizens, and treats them as illegal immigrants, despite the community's roots in the country going back centuries. They claim the Rohingya are actually Bangladeshi — something Bangladesh's government denies.

If anything, the laws against the Rohingya have only grown harsher over the years. A 2015 law, passed under pressure from Buddhist nationalists, prevents the Rohingya from marrying without a license. As children, Rohingya are barred from public schools and have to be educated privately — a luxury most cannot afford — or in schools run by imams.

The death toll rose quickly. Almost 400 people — including 29 members of the Burmese military — were killed in the clashes following the ARSA attack, the Associated Press reported.

The response by the Burmese army has been disproportionate, according to activists. "It is probably the worst genocidal attack by Burmese military in the last 30 years," Malik Mujahid of Burma Taskforce USA told BuzzFeed News of the latest outbreak of violence.

His fears were echoed by Ro Nay San Lwin, a Rohingya activist who has documented a number of alleged atrocities, who said that the latest outbreak of violence was being used by the Burmese military as an “excuse” to “indiscriminately” kill.

“Many children have been killed,” he told BuzzFeed News from Geneva, “many women, many elderly. They are indiscriminately killing.”

One 25-year-old Rohingya man, referred to as Abdullah, told Reuters: "The situation is very terrifying, houses are burning, all the people ran away from their homes, parents and children were divided, some were lost, some are dead."

Human Rights Watch has said that at least 10 areas of predominantly Rohingya homes have been torched. Videos and photographs taken by villagers and activists on the ground also purport to show the devastation as they fled the scene.

In response, a Burmese military spokesperson claimed that it was the Rohingya insurgents who were setting fire to their homes. But as Ro Nay San Lwin asked, "Why would they set fire to their own homes?"

International organizations have condemned the violence.

UN spokesman Stéphane Dujarric said in a statement Wednesday that Secretary-General António Guterres was deeply concerned for the safety of civilians and condemned the violence.

“This cannot lead to a repeat of last year’s vicious military reprisals responding to a similar attack, when security forces tortured, killed and raped Rohingya people and burned down whole villages," Amnesty International also warned in a statement last week.

But Ro Nay San Lwin said: “The international community has said it is doing something, but it’s never happened: There is no action, and the situation is getting worse."

Aid workers in Bangladesh say the situation on the border is desperate. "Some new arrivals have clothes with them, some even have kitchen utensils, but most leave everything behind. They need immediate shelter and food assistance," a spokesperson for the International Organization for Migration told the BBC.

The UN's regional official Vivian Tan told the BBC Friday that "every available space is being occupied," to cope with those arriving.

Mujahid, of Burma Taskforce USA, told BuzzFeed News Wednesday: "We know from our sources on the ground that another 40,000 Rohingya are hiding from the Burmese military in forests."

He said that "tens of thousands" were trying to enter Bangladesh. Some have already died in this attempt, the BBC reported Thursday, with at least 20 bodies discovered by Bangladeshi coast guards.